Let's take your average bouncer on duty outside a brothel or 'speakeasy' there is no movement whatsoever from them - they're just frozen in time. Well, you can imagine.Īnimation too is dire. Things get even worse at night, and when you add a bit of rain. This wouldn't be so bad if it worked, but as it stands, most of your time in the 3D isometric view is spent trying to locate your wayward wise guys. Luckily we don't get to see too much of it, because like the original, Gangsters 2 features a bizarre clipping system that chops off the roofs and walls of buildings to let you see your characters more clearly.
The dull, grey badlands of Milton Keynes or Basingstoke look positively exotic compared to these grizzly cityscapes. Graphically, Gangsters 2 resembles a kind of melted Legoland. As it is, the shallow level-by-level structure quickly leaves you feeling bored and cheated, and feeling that this was a wasted opportunity. OK, so the cash goes towards new weapons, vehicles, 'muscle' and of course new businesses -but there should be more to it than that.Ī bit of gun running from one town to another, or selling alcohol to neighbouring cities, or any kind of trading for that matter would have added much-needed depth and scope to the game. What's the point of setting up gambling dens, bars, breweries and other interesting sidelines when you can't actually do anything useful with them?
It's a shame really because you can't help thinking the whole gangster concept deserves something much more enterprising. Of course there's light relief to be had by gunning down innocent civilians with Tommy guns, but in Gangsters 2 nearly everyone's corrupt so they probably deserve it anyway. Occasionally there's the odd subplot thrown in to spice things up, but overall you're looking at the same formula level after level. Gameplay resembles an over-complicated hybrid of Risk and Monopoly where you gain territory by taking over businesses, until you rule the town entirely or you assassinate one or more rival mob bosses. Each city is basically a stand-alone level and once you've conquered it, it's on to the next. Ultimately your empire should span the entire fictional state of New Temperance, however don't expect any complex interaction or trading between cities. Assuming the role of ex-soldier Joey Bane, you must avenge your father's death by killing those responsible for his murder while nurturing a large-scale 'business' operation in which you move from city to city creating an untouchable web of corruption and illegal dealings. The background story is predictable stuff. Gangsters 2 could've been a classic - trouble is it just doesn't work. On the surface it sounds great and as an RTS concept it's brilliant. All the action is viewed either in isometric 3D or using an overhead map assassinations, bribes, bank jobs, setting up counterfeit operations, machine-gun battles in the street and more are all performed with a click of the mouse. Unsurprisingly and unimaginatively, the onus in Gangsters 2 is again on creating and maintaining a massive crime empire, except this time there's much more of a real-time feel to the game. In fact, we could stop the review right here and you'd be better off for it, as would Hothouse Creations, but alas, we're duty-bound to warn you, so here goes. The reality is that Gangsters 2 is a massive disappointment and even more so when you realise that developer Hothouse Creations seems to have learnt nothing in the two and a half years since it released the awful Gangsters: Organised Crime. So, the fact that this particular game has already gone straight to number one in Electronic Boutique's chart is hugely misleading and totally unmerited.
#GANGSTERS 2 VENDETTA DEMO FULL#
Publishers are renowned for not releasing review code of poor games to magazines in order to get a few sales under their belt before the full gory truth is revealed.
Gangsters 2 is in the shops as this is being written and that's instantly suspicious.